...John Steinbeck’s 1937 novel Of Mice and Men is a tale of two migrant workers in the Great Depression, who despite being complete contrasts of one and other, work together to survive the difficult lifestyle. George, the vastly more intelligent of the two, is a warden to Lennie, the colossal working machine who suffers from a mental condition. Steinbeck demonstrates the crippling loneliness the people of the ranch suffer from through his impeccable style. Steinbeck reveals via meticulous dialogue that discrimination is a leading cause of loneliness among the people of the ranch. For example, In Chapter 5, Curly’s wife goes to the barn to talk with Lennie while the other ranch hands play horseshoes, she proclaims, “Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely. (Steinbeck 86)”...
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...Cruelty is unavoidable in society, always has been and will likely continue to be throughout many centuries to come. Capturing the cruelty of society is a concept that William Golding and John Steinbeck both vividly exemplify. Steinbeck’s use of racism and discrimination through characters powerfully demonstrates cruelty. Golding illustrates cruelty through examples of bullying, self-preservation, and abandonment. However, although man's cruelty to other men is expressed clearly in William Golding's work, Lord of the Flies, as well as John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, they are both epitomize the concept in alternative ways. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, cruelty is shown by targeting people over things they can’t control,...
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...During the early and mid 1900’s, African Americans are endless victims of discrimination. They are seen as outcasts and are treated horribly. The events of discrimination are shown very well in the novels A Summer of Kings by Han Nolan and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Both of the books clearly show the themes of racism, segregation and gender inequality throughout the content of their storylines. Having these forms of discrimination in both of the novels, make the readers realize how much suffering these innocent people had to go through every single day of their lives because of the cruel societies around them. Both of the novels have events within them showing the segregation, racism and gender inequality that are associated with the theme of discrimination. The events that they endure every day are horrible and these events have made a mark on history. Every event that shows discrimination is embedded in history and in A Summer of Kings and Of Mice and Men, the authors have shown these events clearly and made the suffering real enough to clearly understand as the reader. In the book A Summer of Kings racism is a central issue. Han Nolan makes sure to inform the readers that the African-American people live in different cities than the white people do. King-Roy Johnston, who is a black man that has been accused of murdering a white man in Alabama. When he comes to live with her family, Esther’s neighbour Pip is not so happy about this when he says “You think...
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...thesis. Discrimination in Of Mice and Men All throughout American history, minorities have been mistreated. In the John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, prejudice influences the way the ranchers treat others. Curley’s Wife, Crooks, and Candy are excluded because of gender, race, age, or disability. This bias results in these people feeling lonely and inferior. In Steinbeck’s novella, multiple characters experience alienation due to discrimination by other ranchers. Throughout the novella, Curley’s Wife is isolated from the male workers several times due to her gender. This is portrayed when the men in the bunkhouse argue with Curley about his wife, when they try to avoid Curley’s Wife because they view her as a nothing more than a distraction because they think her beauty is her only valuable characteristic. Carlson says, “Why’n’t you...
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...At the time of the Great Depression the U.S created a repatriation program that deported people of mexican descent, 400,000 were repatriated, sometimes against their will. In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men, there are many overarching themes, these themes help the author show the hard times of the Great Depression. One such theme would be the prevalence of loneliness in many of the characters. Another theme would be the discrimination against a number of characters, in the different forms such as sexism and racism. Lastly, many dreams in the novel go unfulfilled leaving many characters with the weight of failure. Throughout the Great Depression human compassion was as rare as a job, this led to widespread loneliness, that, in turn, is apparent...
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...Through a list of harsh truths, John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men casts humanity in an unfavorable light. These include loneliness, oppression, and imperfection. The grim realities of the hardworking characters are revealed through their actions to rise above challenges and in the end their defeats These truths are all used to build the complex main theme of friendship and the effect it can have on an individual's life. Of Mice and Men exposes the validity,loneliness, of people during the Great Depression. For instance Curly’s wife seeks attention ,positive or negative, from anyone on the ranch because of her isolation being the only woman present. When confronted with her isolation she says,“Wha’s the matter with me?Ain’t I got...
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...Which significant Cultural Issues evolve during the course of the novel? Give Specific Reference to the themes present in the text. "Of mice and men", by John Steinbeck is a classic novella with containing pages filled with awe-inspiring literature, that has brought smiles as well as tears to all of its readers. There are several cultural issues that Steinbeck incorporates into this text, using effective techniques and a very articulate writing style to make this novella one to be remembered long after the final pages have been read. The main cultural issues that evolve through the course of the novel include racism, alienation and the constantly evolving issue of hope. The main cultural issue that evolve during the course of the novella is discrimination and prejudice. There are three main people in the novella who are discriminated against in this text. They include Curley's wife, Lennie and Crooks. Crooks is an American African and because of his skin colour he is constantly discriminated against throughout the novella. As Lennie enters Cooks' room for the first time, he becomes very defensive as he says, "You got no right to come in my room. This here is my room. Nobody got any right in here but me". Lennie, as innocent as he is, does not know about racism and does not, through the entire novella understand or use racism against Crooks. Lennie, who does not know of racism, "smiled at helplessly in an attempt to make friends". Crooks realises that Lennie is mentally...
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...What role does nature play in John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men? Set in the Salinas Valley of California, Of Mice and Men features George and Lennie, two old-time friends setting off to work in a ranch after being kicked out of their last one. Their dream is to own a piece of land on their own, where they're free to do whatever they want. By chasing this dream, the duo will face many obstacles in their path and see new things, many of which will be reflected through the nature and landscape throughout the story. Steinbeck's diction of the natural world creates an atmosphere of peace, eeriness, and forewarning, all of which symbolize events that happen in the story. The story begins with a description of an area surrounding the Salinas...
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...most terrible poverty.” In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, we see that loneliness was an issue even in the era of George and Lennie. At different parts throughout the story, Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife all feel lonely and have to face different types of loneliness. Throughout the book, Steinbeck tells us about a somewhat disabled, black man, named Crooks, and shows us his loneliness in the form of discrimination. Crooks shows this loneliness on page 72 by saying,”A guy needs somebody to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.” Crooks, the stable buck, spends his time sitting alone in the stable. Crooks is discriminated, and...
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...Of Mice and Men “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” This quote from James Truslow Adams “The epic of America”, states one of the themes in the novella Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck, the author of Of Mice and Men, deals with the topic of living through the great depression, as the readers follow the story of two migrants workers and their wish to fulfil their American Dream. Steinbeck’s inspiration for his novella can be linked back to his own life, as he was both born and raised in Salinas Valley, the most productive agricultural region in California. This essay will cover Of Mice and Men’s setting, the characterisation of major characters and the key themes identified within the novella. Two protagonists, Lennie and George, travel around together to obtain work. Within the novella, Steinbeck has presented two obvious settings, and focused on the contrast between them. Nearing the beginning of the book, the two men spend a night in a small, secluded glade near the river. The description of the nature area could be compared to heaven, just a beautiful place as described in this quote: “On one side of the river, the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Galiban mountains” (page 1, line 5), where the nature is described as majestic, strong and even golden. However a contrast is formed with the two men entering the setting...
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...People are born with less power because the color of their skin. In the popular novel John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men.The novel tells a tale about migrant workers in Salinas Valley during the Great Depression. One man is an African American, named Crooks, working on the ranch. He works the same hours under the same weather conditions as the other white workers, but he gets treated with less respect as them. Although Crooks has worked on the ranch longer than the other men, he lacks the respect because in America blacks aren’t worth as much. During the Great Depression times were tough, and men traveled the country looking for work. Often they worked on farms, doing the dirty jobs. At this time black people were often isolated and segregated...
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...Attempting to deliver the same message of a classic novella visually on screen with cinematic techniques is definitely a challenge. The original story, written by John Steinbeck consistently uses the contract of light and darkness and imagery at the beginning of every chapter as his literary techniques to highlight the social conditions of the American Great Depression. On the other hand, Gary Sinise's adaptions uses a variety of cinematic techniques, such as lighting, shot and angle, and character costumes to represent the original story. At the beginning of Chapter 3, ''Although there was evening brightness showing through the windows of the bunk, inside it was dusk,'' and ''Slim....turned on the light tin shaded electric light.... Instantly...
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...This “dream” eluded many people, such as poor citizens from California and surrounding states and migrants suffering from the economical downfall from all parts of the world. It gave them false hopes and dreams of becoming wealthy and prosperous, when in reality, America was in the clutches of the most extensive and most profound economical/social depression ever known. The American Dream fooled endless people into believing that becoming successful is possible, no matter what your situation is. The victims of this fallacy, men and migrants, who owned nothing but the clothes on their backs, would end up living in squalid camps or wandering around the California Dust Bowl, searching for a job so they could make a meagre living. Despite all that was going on around him, each man would have his own small dream in his head of becoming a future success. Miller and Steinbeck were inspired by these dreamers and featured them in many of their books/plays. John Steinbeck was born on February 27th 1902. By the age of fourteen he had made up his mind to become a writer. He completed his first novel, Cup of Gold, in 1929. What is considered to be his finest, most ambitious work is The Grapes of Wrath, which was published in 1939. The book tells the story of a disposed Oklahoma families struggle to set up a new life in California, which is in the midst of the Depression. Steinbeck was living in California whilst this sort of thing was going on. Many of his books protested against the...
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...AHS RESEARCH MANUAL 2011 Student: __________________________ TERESA STERCHI KIM BROWN AHS LIBRARY CONTENTS PREPARATION OF THE RESEARCH PAPER........................................................1 SELECTING AND LIMITING THE TOPIC............................................................1 PREPARING A WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY AND EVALUATING SOURCES…………….2 READING AND TAKING NOTES........................................................................3 DEVELOPING A WORKING OUTLINE/PLAN…………………………………………………….5 DOCUMENTING AND CITING SOURCES USING MLA STYLE……………..……………..7 WRITING THE PAPER…………………………………..…………………...........................18 MLA STYLE OF PARENTHETICAL/IN-TEXT CITATIONS………………………………….19 PLACING CITATIONS IN THE PAPER…………………………………………………………..21 FORMATTING AND TYPING THE REPORT USING THE MLA STYLE…………………26 TYPING THE WORKS CITED PAGE AND SAMPLE TITLE PAGE..........................29 PREPARATION Research is the process of gathering information from different sources on a particular topic. In daily life students may research buying a song on the Internet, buying a new MP3 player, an iPod, or any other product of interest. At school, students may have to research a historical topic, an author or literary work, or a contemporary issue and present their findings in a paper, PowerPoint presentation, or in a movie format. All of this is part of the process of asking questions, looking at the available information, and coming to a conclusion based...
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...AHS RESEARCH MANUAL 2011 Student: __________________________ TERESA STERCHI KIM BROWN AHS LIBRARY CONTENTS PREPARATION OF THE RESEARCH PAPER........................................................1 SELECTING AND LIMITING THE TOPIC............................................................1 PREPARING A WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY AND EVALUATING SOURCES…………….2 READING AND TAKING NOTES........................................................................3 DEVELOPING A WORKING OUTLINE/PLAN…………………………………………………….5 DOCUMENTING AND CITING SOURCES USING MLA STYLE……………..……………..7 WRITING THE PAPER…………………………………..…………………...........................18 MLA STYLE OF PARENTHETICAL/IN-TEXT CITATIONS………………………………….19 PLACING CITATIONS IN THE PAPER…………………………………………………………..21 FORMATTING AND TYPING THE REPORT USING THE MLA STYLE…………………26 TYPING THE WORKS CITED PAGE AND SAMPLE TITLE PAGE..........................29 PREPARATION Research is the process of gathering information from different sources on a particular topic. In daily life students may research buying a song on the Internet, buying a new MP3 player, an iPod, or any other product of interest. At school, students may have to research a historical topic, an author or literary work, or a contemporary issue and present their findings in a paper, PowerPoint presentation, or in a movie format. All of this is part of the process of asking questions, looking at the available information, and coming to a conclusion based...
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